Birmingham DUI & Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Eversole Law Firm : Criminal and DUI Defense : Serving Birmingham, Montgomery, Alabama

I defend clients across the great state of Alabama charged with driving under the influence.  My firm's central location in Birmingham, Alabama allows us to regularly defend clients throughout the state and in Jefferson County, including Mountain Brook, Hoover, Pelham, Vestavia Hills, Moody, Leeds, Homewood, Hueytown, Trussvile, Gardendale, Fultondale, Fairfield, Bessemer, Adamsville and Pleasant Grove.  As a Birmingham, Alabama DUI Defense Lawyer, I also defend clients in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Huntsville and Mobile, Alabama. 

My firm believes you are innocent until proven guilty of driving under the influence, or DUI/DWI.  We will fight for your rights in every Alabama County and in every Alabama Court.  You do not have to plead guilty to DUI charges, even if you blow above the legal limit.  There are many ways to challenge a DUI charge in court.  My firm focuses our practice on making these challenges.  We also believe in making quality DUI defense an affordable option for people who want to defend themselves against DUI charges.  When you cannot afford to lose, call Eversole Law,  and say "bye bye" to your DUI. 

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Field sobriety tests are very inaccurate.  The tests are completely subjective and should not be used as proof of guilt in any court proceeding.  Has anyone ever passed a field sobriety test in Alabama?  I doubt it.  If the cop wants to arrest you, you can bet the night in jail that your performance on a field sobriety test will make little difference.  Apparently, cops are like superman, they have laser vision.  They are able to discern an inch difference in the placement of your feet on a dark highway with little to no light,  and are able to stand on one foot while counting for 30 seconds at a time, without ever moving a muscle or slightly adjusting their leg.  I don't know about you, but standing on one foot for thirty seconds is hard to do at all, sober or not.  Don't believe me, try it.  Make sure your foot does not touch your leg or almost touch the ground, and make sure you don't sway too much while doing so either.  I have heard all these grounds used as a cops reasoning to arrest someone for DUI.  As I have said on this blog several times, do not take a field sobriety test. 

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An Alabama women was charged with a DUI for, "riding under the influence."  This story is a couple months old, but helps make my point.  The crazy, "MADD" mothers against drunk driving have caused Alabama to go insane.  Alabama code 32-5A-191 specifically requires that in order to be guilty of driving under the influence, you must be driving or under the physical control, "of a motor vehicle."  Does anyone think this horse has wheels or an engine? How in the world can the language of the Alabama Statute be interpreted any other way than to require some kind of motorized vehicle?  According to Websters, the definition of motor vehicle is as follows:

 motor vehicle
Function: noun
: an automotive vehicle not operated on rails; especially : one with rubber tires for use on highways

This is just another crazy example of police powers run amok and MADD mothers running our legislature and courts.  I guess the horse had rubber horseshoes.  What's next, no bull-riding while intoxicated?  What fun would that be. 

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When you are arrested for a DUI in Alabama your case will be heard in a particular court.  The specific court your case is docketed in depends on several factors; including which police agency arrested you and how many Driving Under the Influence convictions you have.  If it's your first DUI or your second, the case is still a misdemeanor and your case will be in either a municipal or district court of the county in which you were arrested.  If you have three DUI convictions, your case is a felony and you will be scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the District Court of the county in which you were arrested.  A felony DUI conviction may also be heard originally in the Circuit Court of the county you were arrested, depending on how you were charged.

If you are arrested for a DUI in a municipality by a municipal police officer, your case will be heard in the municipal court of that city(i.e. Mountain Brook) if that city has a municipal court.  Municipal courts and district courts are what we lawyers call, "courts of limited jurisdiction."  This just means that these courts have no power to hear felony DUI cases.  A district court can, however, have preliminary hearings in felony DUI cases. 

There is no right to a jury trial in either a municipal or district court.  If one of these courts hear your case and you exercise your right to have a trial, then you will have a bench trial.  A bench trial is a trial before a judge only, with no jury.  If you chose to have a trial in either a district or municipal court and are convicted, you have a right to appeal that conviction to a circuit court of the county you were arrested for a new trial.  In order to perfect your right to a DUI conviction from a district or municipal court, you must file a notice of appeal within 14 days of conviction and post an appeal bond.  If you do not file within the time allotted you forfeit your right to any appeal.  You are entitled to a jury trial in circuit court.  If you lose in circuit court, you can always appeal that decision to the Alabama appellate courts.

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Have you been charged with a DUI in Alabama?  If so, you have only 10 days to request an administrative hearing or your license will be suspended.  You should receive notice of this fact from the arresting officer.  If you lose your license, your only option is to appeal the decision to the Circuit Court within 30 days. 

The license loss is distinct from any criminal penalties. This means that you can lose your license while being found "guilty," or "not guilty," in an Alabama DUI trial.  Makes you wonder what happened to the concept, "innocent until proven guilty."  In this case, it's not even, "guilty until proven innocent."  It's simply, "guilty."  Now some will argue that balancing this equation is the administrative hearing.  But does the administrative hearing really provide the same kind of safe guards that are enshrined into our Constitution and afforded those accused of crimes?  Furthermore, even if you somehow believe that taking someone's license for a crime he has not been proven to commit is fair, I would then scream Double Jeopardy.  It is supposedly illegal to charge someone with the same crime twice, no matter how you look at it, and no matter how it may have been interpreted, the prohibition against Doubly Jeopardy is not esoteric.  It's plain meaning will suffice. 

Sorry for the digressive rant.  Back to my original subject.  The 10 day rule applies to you if you meet any of the following conditions:

• BAC over .08 while driving or under control of a vehicle
• BAC at or above .02 and you are below the age of 21
• BAC over .04 at time of arrest for Commercial Drivers
• You refused to take breath test

If you do not request an administrative hearing within ten days of arrest you will lose your license. You could lose your license in this manner anywhere from 90 days to several years.  Factors to be considered in determining how long you could lose your license include:

1. Driving Category
2. Age
3. Driving Record

Moral of the story, hire an Alabama DUI & Criminal Defense attorney that focuses his practice on defending those accused of a DUI.  I spend hundreds of hours perfecting the defense of those accused of DUI.  I have read all relevant publications, including hundreds of DUI and Criminal Defense Blogs from all over the country.  I also regularly attend legal education seminars devoted to DUI defense. Not to mention , I obsessively update this blog to make it the best source of information available to those accused on a DUI in Alabama.  Combined I spend around 25-30 hours a week studying Alabama DUI & Criminal Defense Law.  The law is way too complicated these days for an attorney to be a jack-of-all-trades.  When your reputation, money, job, or freedom is on the line, you need an attorney that makes Alabama DUI & Criminal Defense his priority.  Riddle me this:  Did you get your plumbing fixed by the electrician?

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A motorist being investigated for DUI should not consent to a blood alcohol test.  My advice to anyone who reads this blog before getting arrested for a DUI, is never take a breathalyzer, field sobriety test, or any test administered by the police or any of its agents.  However, most people do not realize they can decline to take the field sobriety or breath test.  The police, of course, will not inform you of your right not to consent prior to taking the breath test.  In fact, they will make a big show of how your license will be suspended for 90 days if you do not submit to the test. 

There are different types of blood alcohol tests in Alabama: urine, breath and blood.  The police  use the breath test almost exclusively.  If you do consent to a breath test for DUI, which is normal, most people do consent to testing, you have the right to get an independent test of your blood alcohol content.  In Alabama, the police will not inform you of your right to get an independent test of your blood alcohol content.  You must make the demand for independent testing yourself, and you must take the police administered test to exercise your right to independent blood alcohol testing. You will also have to make the arrangements for the independent test and you must pay all expenses.  However, the police must give you reasonable access to arrange for an independent test.  Their failure to provide you access to independent testing gives rise to grounds for suppression of the police administered blood alcohol testing. 

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Jeremy Stevens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's tight-end, was found guilty of DUI today.  The officer that testified against Stevens, said "he smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech."  I find this interesting because this seems to be the standard refrain from police officers in DUI cases.  It's like they are issued manuals pieced together from old DUI case law.  Those three descriptions are testified to with such repetition, you would think everyone who ever drove a car after drinking, must poor kegs of beer over their heads, smoke a pound of hash, and get so stumbling drunk they talk like Otis from the Andy Griffith show.  

What is so shocking about this kind of testimony is its subjectivity.  Lets say the cop had a bad day, or you just pissed him off because you didn't kiss his bloody bum.  It becomes really easy for him to say, "You smell like alcohol, step out of the car."  It is also really easy to make up on the stand when pressured by defense counsel.  I know most cops would not do these things. But in my experience, I have seen it occur to often to believe it doesn't happen with some regularity. 

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Imagine, if you will, this scenario: You get a big promotion at work and the fellas take you out to celebrate one Friday evening.  Long story short, you get tanked on the revelry....and the beer.  Instead of getting in your car and attempting a dangerous ride home, you decide to pass out in the car to be safe, parked safely in the parking lot across the street from the bar.  Next thing you know, a blue clad bobby is banging on your window and shining his light into your blood shot eyes.  Slip, boom, bam, your headed "downtown," to the station for a DUI.  But wait, you complain, how can I get a DUI when I wasn't even driving a car?  It's called, "driving" under the influence for a reason, right? 

Unfortunately, this injustice has occurred far too many times.  Yes, you can be convicted for a DUI in Alabama without ever driving your car.   A person may be convicted of a DUI in Alabama who is in actual physical control of his vehicle, but not yet driving; even where he is asleep in his parked vehicle.  Does this sentence actually make sense to anyone?  And yes,  this language comes directly from the case. How can you be in actual physical control of your vehicle if you are passed out asleep?  I thought the idea was to keep people from drinking and driving.  This law looks like the kind that has the opposite effect of its intentions.  

I could tell you want more absurdity.  Well here goes.  You can even be convicted of a DUI in Alabama even if the car doesn't work.  I am not joking, even though it sounds like a bad joke, or a nightmare depending on your point of view.  The Court in Mester v. State, 755 So. 2d 66 (Ala. Crim. App. 1999), ruled that a defendant was in "actual physical control" of his automobile even though the car was inoperable.   

I hope readers are starting to see why I believe so much in being a criminal defense attorney.  This kind of thing is anti-American.  Where does it say in the Constitution that you can't get snot slinging drunk if you want, and sleep in your car?  Criminal Defense Attorneys are truly, "liberties last champions." I salute you all. 

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Alabama law is well settled in that, to establish a prima facie case of driving while under the influence of alcohol under § 32-5A-191(a)(2), the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant:

• drove, or was in actual physical control of, a motor vehicle
• while he was under the influence of alcohol
• to such an extent that it affected his ability to operate his vehicle in a safe manner.

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